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I recently received feedback from my manager to take time out to review teammate's PR and design docs. For context, I've always been under-confident and scared

I recently received feedback from my manager to take time out to review teammate's PR and design docs. For context, I've always been under-confident and scared to review and feel like I fail to add quality feedback to other people's code and design. I'll use this article as a guideline for my next PR review! Has anyone else been in the same situation as I? How did you overcome it?

alphazard 3y ago
You may just have a keen level of self-awareness. If you don't have any suggestions, you can just say so. As you gain experience this will likely change, and you will have more to offer. Don't be fooled by your peers that look for superficial things to comment on. There are many people with the same amount of knowledge as you, but who are less self-aware and are adding noise the system, because they are scared of being perceived as incompetent. Find someone who has given you meaningful feedback during code/design review, and see what kind of comments they leave on other people's work. If you don't understand one of their suggestions ask them about it.
recursivecaveat 3y ago
One of the most valuable feedback comments you can leave on a review is "hey I found this part confusing, can you add a comment?". I think sometimes people are afraid to admit something like that, but obviously if you're confused by it now, in-context, it will not be easier to understand in 16 months. In general you don't have to provide super clever bug catches, often a second set of eyes is all that's needed. Its surprisingly easy to leave really stupid stuff in your diffs, because you gloss over them, thinking you remember exactly what's in there. As long as you don't make any comments about style, or make a ton of work for them, people are usually very receptive. People enjoy shipping things that are quality, so if you give them an excuse they don't mind adding some comments or trying to merge 2 samey segments.

alphazard 3y ago

You may just have a keen level of self-awareness. If you don't have any suggestions, you can just say so. As you gain experience this will likely change, and you will have more to offer. Don't be fooled by your peers that look for superficial things to comment on. There are many people with the same amount of knowledge as you, but who are less self-aware and are adding noise the system, because they are scared of being perceived as incompetent. Find someone who has given you meaningful feedback during code/design review, and see what kind of comments they leave on other people's work. If you don't understand one of their suggestions ask them about it.

recursivecaveat 3y ago

One of the most valuable feedback comments you can leave on a review is "hey I found this part confusing, can you add a comment?". I think sometimes people are afraid to admit something like that, but obviously if you're confused by it now, in-context, it will not be easier to understand in 16 months. In general you don't have to provide super clever bug catches, often a second set of eyes is all that's needed. Its surprisingly easy to leave really stupid stuff in your diffs, because you gloss over them, thinking you remember exactly what's in there. As long as you don't make any comments about style, or make a ton of work for them, people are usually very receptive. People enjoy shipping things that are quality, so if you give them an excuse they don't mind adding some comments or trying to merge 2 samey segments.